Despite the severe crisis that the Mexican
economy has been suffering since December
1994, the Mexico City art scene seems as
alive as ever, thriving with commercial
galleries and independent, artist-run
spaces. This is quite a new trend, since in
the past art in Mexico has been heavily
dependent on government-run exhibition
spaces. We need only remember that in the
1930s and 1940s, most of the works created
by the famous muralists--Diego Rivera, José
Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros-
-were commissioned by the Mexican
government to "decorate" city or federal
buildings. Today, the government still runs
a great number of museums and galleries,
but the most interesting artists tend to
show in private or alternative spaces.
The first serious art galleries in Mexico
City opened in the 1980s, in Colonia Roma,
an old aristocratic neighborhood, full of
turn-of-the century French-style mansions.
For many years, this neighborhood had been
neglected and many of its houses had fallen
into disrepair--some were even torn down to
build office buildings or department
stores. This pitiful decay lasted until the
late `80s, when a number of galleries,
bookstores and cafés began to move back
into Colonia Roma, transforming the old
neighborhood into Mexico City's art
district.
One of the first galleries to open in this
neighborhood was Galería OMR, housed in a
typical Colonia Roma house, with a turn-of-
the-century stone façade and vast
exhibition rooms. Directed by Patricia
Ortéz Monasterio and Jaime Riestra (thus
the name, OMR), this gallery is among the
most active in Mexico, and has a strong
presence in international art fairs and art
magazines. Although in the past OMR has
promoted some trite neo-Mexicanist
(obsessed with essentialist notions of
Mexican culture and identity) artists,
lately they have been showing more exciting
work. On view during June and July was an
exhibition by British-born Melanie Smith,
who has been living and working in Mexico
since the late `80s, doing extensive work
based on the color orange. For this show,
which consisted exclusively of paintings on
canvas (all orange, of course), Smith
combined her expertise on this bright color
with a comical appropriation of famous
painting styles. Each painting in the show
was titled with a Spanish name, and
presented an orange, parodic version of a
typical work by famous foreign painter with
that name. Thus the orange dots in Victor
mock the optical effects of Victor Vasarely
op-art paintings; in Claudio, Claude
Monet's waterlilies are turned into an
aqueous, orange abstraction; and in Pedro,
Mondrian's simple and minimal use of color
is perverted by Smith's "orange lush" grid.
A short walk from OMR, Galería Nina Menocal
is directed by the enthusiastic, Cuban-born
Nina Menocal. In 1989, Menocal radically
influenced the art scene in Mexico by
opening a modest gallery in an apartment,
where she exhibited works by young Cuban
artists from the so-called "generation of
the `80s." Between 1989 and 1993, Ninart--
as her gallery was called back then--
organized some of the most exciting
exhibitions in the city, with Cuban artists
like José Bedia, Arturo Cuenca, Glexis
Novoa, Consuelo Castañeda and Quisqueya
Henríquez--artists who Nina Menocal helped
to move to Mexico. The great majority of
these Cuban artists have since moved to the
United States, and Galería Nina Menocal is
now working with mostly Mexican and
Argentinean artists, like Boris Viskin and
Patricia Landen, respectively.
Another space in Colonia Roma is Galería
Arte Contemporãneo, located in Flora, a
quiet, tree-lined street. Directed by
Benjamín Diaz, this gallery first opened in
the 1980s, and during its first years it
had several successful shows with
international artists like Meyer Vaisman
and Kcho. The gallery closed down for a few
years--allegedly due to financial troubles
and mismanagement--and reopened only last
September. On view until the end of August
was a show of recent work by Nadin Ospina--
the Colombian artist famous for producing
what looks like a pre-Columbian stone
statue of Bart Simpson. The show includes
several Bart Simpson sculptures in all
sizes, as well as effigies of Mickey Mouse
and other pop figures. Unfortunately
Ospina's work provokes a few laughs but
appears very limited and devoid of ideas
once we get past the joke.
In contrast to the galleries, which are all
clustered together in the same area, Mexico
City's independent spaces are scattered all
over town. In the historic downtown
district, Art & Idea occupies the first
floor of a colonial building with a red
tezontle stone façade. Art & Idea just
opened in July 1996, and promises to be one
of Mexico City's most interesting not-for-
profit spaces. Directed by Robert
Punkenhofer, an Austrian now resident in
Mexico, this immaculate gallery is devoted
to the exhibition of installation art and
other non-commercial genres. Art & Idea
opened with Video Faze--an exhibition of
ten "video self-portraits" that included
pieces by Takahiko Iimura from Japan,
Cheryl Donegan from the U.S. and Rainer
Ganahl from Austria. Forthcoming events
include an exhibition on the theme of
nomadism curated by Jade Dellinger, and a
solo show by Mexican photographer and video
artist Silvia Gruner.
La Panadería is an art center run by an
artist collective headed by Mexican artists
Miguel Calderón and Yoshua Okón. Housed in
what used to be a bakery in Colonia
Condesa--Mexico City's old Jewish
neighborhood--this space has been open for
slightly over a year, and is the recipient
of one of the prestigious and munificent
"U.S.-Mexico Fund for Culture" grants. La
Panadería started with an extremely
ambitious project, which included opening
an exhibition space and a café in the
building, as well as publishing a magazine
and organizing lectures and courses.
Unfortunately, out of all these plans, only
the exhibition space has been carried
through, and not in the most professional
manner. Openings and other events at La
Panadería are usually attended by a grungy
"teeny-bopper" crowd, and the production
quality of most of the work exhibited there
leaves much to be desired. During my last
visit in August, there was nothing on view.
Art Deposit, also in Colonia Roma, is
another artist-run space that has been open
for only a few months. Headed by Stefan
Bruggeman, a 20-year-old Mexican artist,
this space is housed in a turn-of-the
century house which has been preserved in
impeccable condition. So far, Bruggeman and
his partners have organized haphazard
exhibitions of works created by fellow-
students. Neither the works nor their
production values are always top-notch, but
the efforts of these young artists are
worthy of recognition, especially since--
unlike La Panadería's dependence on a juicy
grant--they must struggle to make ends meet
though ticket sales and fundraising.
In closing, these six exhibition spaces--
which range from grungy buildings to the
perfect "white cube"--reflect the diversity
of art practices in Mexico City. I feel
especially optimistic about the existence
of artist-run spaces, which are quite new
to Mexico, a country that has been
historically over-dependent on government
sponsorship for the arts. And though these
new spaces might be unorganized and
chaotic--like La Panadería--at least they
mark the beginning of a new approach to
creating and exhibiting art in Mexico.
Addresses of galleries mentioned above:
Galeria Nina Menocal
Zacatecas 93
Colonia Roma
Mexico DF 06700
Tel (5) 564 7443
Fax (5) 574 7486
Galeria OMR
Plaza Rio de Janeiro 54
Colonia Roma
Mexico DF 05700
Tel (5) 525 3095
511 1179
Fax (5) 523 4244
Galeria Arte Contemporaneo
Flora 9
Colonia Roma
Mexico DF 06700
Tel (5) 514 6782
Fax (5) 514 6456
La Panaderia
Amsterdam at Ozuluama
Colonia Condesa
Mexico DF
Tel (5) 286 7777
Art & Idea
Isabel la Catolica 5, 1er piso
Centro Historico
Mexcio DF 06000
Tel (5) 510 1859
Fax (5) 251 7067
Art Deposit
Tabasco 3030
Colonia Roma
Mexico DF 06700
Tel (5) 264 1034
Rubén Gallo is a critic and curator.
He currently divides his time between
New York and Mexico City.
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